Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Mug rugs, snack mats, coasters, mini placemats - call them what you will, but they are all over blogland right now. Thanks to MugRugMadness I'm now feeling compelled to post about the snack mats I made for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild's February swap.

Blind swap. Simple concept. I decided to make 2 because they are quick and fun. Both are improvised, I had no idea what they would end up looking like when I started. I also used entirely scraps for both.

Fronts:

Backs:That's it, not the most exciting crafting in the world, but they're just so fun and quick to make, I can hardly resist. Can I just say that I really dislike the term 'mug rug'? I don't have the same issues with it as Jen does ;) but I prefer 'snack mat' - thank you Megan for that perfect substitution.

Anyway (thanks to Kristen and a long story)- I was the lucky recipient of this:

A true work of art by Elizabeth. I love it, and won't put snacks on it. It lives on my desk. I think it is happy there.

I also changed the look of my blog - what do you think, better, worse, fine, you don't care? Let me know!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

I want to thank Jen Bailly (bettycrockerass) for taking all the pictures of the quilt in this post.This is the cozy couch quilt I made for my son for Christmas. I totally forgot to post about it, and realized last week that I didn't even have a picture of it. My daughter's quilt got finished first, and it was a race to get this one done in time - but I did. They both love their quilts and regularly snuggle with them on the couch.

Can I just say that I LOVE Echino fabric? It's so bright, graphic, and bold. It is also a joy to work with the cotton-linen blend. I used some kona solids and some 100% linen in this quilt as well. I think it turned out really fun, and we all kind of fight over it a bit in the evenings.

It's backed with a piece of minky that I got at 50% off, and it quilted up pretty nice. It was a bit heavy for my walking foot to pull through, so I had to help it along quite a bit. Even so, it wasn't all that bad to quilt.

We just rolled back into town after a long spring break weekend at the coast....ahhh, the ocean air does wonders to my mood and my brain. I feel pretty much ok for the first time in awhile. Cheers all!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Yes, I know that the Holidays are LONG over, but I did manage to take some pics of pillows that I gave as gifts, and wanted to share. Way back in August I took this class which was taught by Elizabeth on free motion quilting. I wanted to practice what I learned so that I didn't lose it. I ended up deciding to make pillows for a bunch of people on my gift list so that I could get a lot of quilting time in. I think it really helped, I got way more confident with free motion. Now I just need to get up the courage to do it on a whole quilt...

Plus - everyone can use a another pillow, right? Also, please try to ignore that huge mess in the background and all the unfinished walls with no trim. Cheers all!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Well, I've made 1 more block for my son's quilt. I was inspired by Megan and Christina, it's my first time trying paper piecing. I love how it turned out, but it took FOREVER and made a huge mess. It wasn't hard, but I still managed to screw it up a couple of times. So now I have an 'X' and an 'O', and I think that may be the name, or at least the theme of this quilt. X's and O's (cause I love the little bugger so much), or tic tac toe (because of the grid) or something like that. It's still really just an abstract concept, and I'm hoping it'll just come together.

I'm finding that I'm still really, really tired from my new medication and I'm not getting a lot of time to sew, but I'm more inspired then ever lately. I have like 100 projects in my head. Maybe more. I need to maybe start writing them down - before I lose them. This Thursday is our March meeting of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild (I can't wait!), and I also have a neurologist appt that day. I hope he can give me some insight, or advice, or anything.

Friday, March 11, 2011

I love Carla! She lives next door to me, you can't really choose your neighbors, but if you could I would have definitely chosen Carla! She's a very cheerful, inspiring Momma of 2(!) teenage girls, leader of a household and Social Worker. On top of all that, she's just f-in awesome and I love hanging out with her. Anyway, I made her this pillow last week. At least I'm pretty sure I did, I'm having periods of amnesia due to my seizure, and I'm now only partially remembering making this. It's definitely fabric from my cabinet though :)

Hope all you NW'ers are enjoying the wonderful sunny warm day, as we're enjoying it, I'm thinking of all the people suffering in Japan.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

It's a pretty grey day in P-town. This is what my desk looks like right now. I think I'm trying to find some summer in the blue and green fabrics. I'm having a rare moment of quiet here and I almost don't know what to do with myself. So much has happened since I last posted! I think I decided that it's really ok if I'm just an occasional poster. I just don't have my sh!t together like alot of you lovely, creative Mommas out there. But I think I'm ok with that. My house is a mess, my kids eat granola bars for lunch, my 3 1/2 yr old still poops in a diaper, my dog eats off the kids plates, we have crayon drawings on every surface of the house - but I'm ok with that. We had a scary week here, I had a grand mal seizure, which I haven't had in 11 years. It's made me realize that I need to stop sweating the small (and not so small) stuff. I need to try to get as much rest as possible, hug my kids as often as I can, and try to enjoy every little stupid, silly thing we do together - even if it's just playing with train tracks or folding laundry.

So I made this green and blue block out of Kona solids the other day, and I can't stop looking at it. It was going to be for PMQG swap, but I may love it too much. Then I thought I might turn it into a pillow for my son's room. Now I'm thinking it may just turn into a twin quilt for him.

I have lots more to share! It's just gonna happen slowly. I hope you're all enjoying the beginnings of spring...